


Carpool

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Also very heavily based off that episode of victorious and cxg, F/F, Yes the cxg lyrics, if u catch me making every second character ND that’s between u & me, ted is in the wrong here let it b known, this is a pro mr Davidson fic I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27629180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Car pooling with a friend is fun and all until you wind up trapped in a car with someone you don’t want to be trapped in a car with
Relationships: Alice Woodward/ Deb, Paul Matthews & Bill, Paul Matthews & Melissa
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Carpool

**Author's Note:**

> very heavily based off I see you from cxg and also the song trapped in a car with someone you don’t want to be trapped in a car with but also that one episode of victorious 😳 Also this is like very bad I just wanted to post it to get it out of my drafts ahfnsf

“Hey gang, sorry, just wanted to check in quickly-“ Paul put his phone down as the PA appeared in the doorway. “Paul, are you still getting a ride with Bill to the venue tomorrow?” Melissa’s fingers flicked through the bunches of paper clipped to her board to mark something off. 

Paul exchanged glanced with Bill to ensure he was still okay to pick him up tomorrow. Sure, it was for company business but carpooling made things a lot more -not fun- but tolerable. 

Bill gave a reassuring nod before turning back to Melissa to confirm it. “We’ll still be driving together, are ya looking forward to it, buddy?” 

Paul gave a nod because that was what the situation called for. He was probably not as excited about it as his friend but Bill would be the most tolerable driving partner, and he didn’t want to be the one at the wheel for the hour long drive. 

“Cool! And Charlotte, Ted said he can still pick you up are you still alright to go with him?” Melissa double checked.

Charlotte gave a shy nod, and a quiet “that’s fine,” before piping up a bit more. “Are you coming to the conference tomorrow, Melissa?”

She nodded. “Not to do anything, really, I’m just driving Mr Davidson there, I’ll probably be on coffee duty is all,” she gave a disappointed yet amiable laugh. “Now, Mr Davidson says IT doesn’t have to be in tomorrow morning, you just have to be there on time. It starts at twelve so please don’t be late,” she crossed off some things on her clipboard as they gave their small mumbles of confirmation, because no one was that thrilled about a company floor event being hosted halfway across the island, and then the secretary was on her way. 

Paul didn’t mind though, personally, as long as he wasn’t driving. He had been meaning to spend some time with Bill lately, and the hour drive might be something to look forward to, that is, if he could ignore the rest of the event.   
———————————————————

“Morning Paul, excited?” Bill grinned from where he was leaning out of his car window as Paul trudged up to his old vehicle. 

He gave a silent nod up of his head because he didn’t want to raise his voice over the engine lest he risk having to awkwardly repeat himself.

“Come on! Who doesn’t love a road trip?” He leant back in to unlock the side door. “I hope you don’t mind, but Alice is bringing Deb, there’s a couple of shops up by the hall they wanna check out today.”

“That’s cool!” If anything, that sort of made the road trip a bit better! Two birds one stone, he hadn’t seen Alice in quite a while. 

For about three seconds, he was genuinely excited for the trip, and then he got into the front seat and his whole mood shifted. 

Beside Alice there was a stranger.

“Oh hey!” He gave a small wave to try and introduce himself despite the panic. 

The girl besides Alice did not immediately reply, so he quickly tried to direct the question at Alice to salvage himself.

“Hey Alice! Long time no see, how’ve you been?” He smiled, awkwardly resting his arm over his chair so he could twist his head to the back seat. 

“Oh, that’s Deb,” Bill introduced them. “Alice’s, you know.”

He didn’t know Deb, though. He had only heard stories and seen her once or twice in passing. They had never spoken and the vibe shifted instantly the second they made eye contact. 

“Hey,” Deb blinked. 

Alice was sitting curled up besides her girlfriend, she had her headphones in but raised one hand in a brief wave and mouthed a greeting. 

Now Deb and Paul were just staring at each other. 

“Hi, nice to meet you,” he said, hoping that wasn’t weird because as he said, they weren’t entirely strangers he supposed, they just had never spoken. 

“Hey,” she just repeated, not having anything prepared to say. “I’m Alice’s...” she gestured to the girl besides her and she didn’t finish the sentence.

Alice glanced up now that Deb was talking about her, taking one headphone out. “Hm?” 

“Oh, nothing,” Paul said. “We didn’t-“ he stopped when he realised she was looking at Deb not him, but now she had glanced his way. Now everyone in the car was glancing at him. He didn’t like that very much. “Should we go?” He spluttered.

“Yeah! Come on, gang, we’re going on a road trip!” He gave a tiny, enthusiastic cheer.

“Thanks for picking me up,” Paul began as the car started, trying to maintain some dignity by filling in the inevitable silence. “I can drive on the way back if you want!” He offered in an attempt to redeem himself from whatever broken ‘conversation’ had just happened. “It’s a long drive.”

“Haha, I might take you up on that buddy, you know how I get after a long drive and I don’t wanna fall asleep at the wheel!” He joked. 

“That’s not-“ he caught himself before he could tell Bill off because that would just make it worse. 

“Hm?” Bill didn’t let it go though.

“Oh, nothing I just-“ shit. This was getting a bit awkward. He was just used to telling people off for car crashing jokes on Emma’s behalf. But Emma wasn’t here right now, and Bill was just trying to start conversation. “Let’s go!” He just mimicked Bill’s cheer from earlier, a lot more forced this time though.

Bill was distracted enough by that though to look up into the rear view mirror to catch Alice’s attention. “Ready to go girls?”

“Yep!” They both answered, leaning into each other but clearly doing their own things on their phones. 

“Lets go!” He cheered like they were moving any faster than the the urban speed limit allowed, drumming his hands on the steering wheel. 

“Yeah, lets go!” Paul echoed him again, unfortunately just as they had pulled up to a red light. He was about to shoot himself in the foot. “Cool!” He ignored the strained crack in his voice as he settled into his seat, sinking down to try and hide his red face, ever aware of the presence in the back seat.

“Soo,” Bill started, sparing Paul a side glance and then checking on Alice in his rear view mirror. “Gang!”

“What’s up, Bill?” He answered after it seemed the other two weren’t going to.

“Does anyone know any fun games for car trips?” He asked curiously, checking on Alice again to see if she was listening. She had her headphones in. “Like, you know Alice when you were a kid and we used to play the alphabet game?”

“Yeah dad,” Alice cut him off a bit prematurely, nudging Deb to tell her not to laugh. “When I was like six or something, yeah.”

“Ooh well what are some more games like that?” 

Paul turned to watch the street fly by out the side window instead, trying to recuperate. 

Bill noticed the silence and his face hardened, a little more determined. “Or, do we know any-“

Bill’s sentence and Paul’s train of thought were cut off by a high pitched laughed as Alice shoved her phone over to show Deb something, who gave a rough chuckle.

Paul winced at the loud sound, starting to tap his foot.

“Oh uh, what’re you laughing at, girls?” He asked, trying not to be brushed out of relevancy. 

“Uh,” Alice hesitated.

Paul took in a deep breath, putting his own headphones in to block out the tension Bill was ignoring. 

“Yeah?” Bill prompted, keeping that same sort of fatherly smile on his face. “Is it funny?” It was a poor attempt at conversation, even Paul recognised that, and he was usually no better apparently. But at least he wasn’t the only one messing up.

“It’s a uh,” Deb started. “A picture of a cat that has its face really close to the camera.”

“And it says ‘paypal me 3000 USD,’” Alice finished, no longer laughing at it.

“Yeah and?” Bill was still smiling. “Oh that was it? I don’t get it.”

“Uh well the joke is,” Deb looked at it again before cackling. “Uh.”

Bill laughed anyways. “Cats are pretty funny, I get it, haha!”

“Uh yeah, sure,” Paul agreed, not sure what the joke is but knowing it wasn’t quite about the cat. He tugged at his collar, letting out a low laugh since this sort of awkward, stiff laughter was what was trending in the car. 

He was just about to settle down too when Bill took in a breath. “That’s right, Alice, can you think of any other games?”

He hated it here. 

“Hey Bill, we don’t need to play any games we’re already fifteen minutes in!” He offered a sympathetic smile regardless. “We’ll be there soon anyways! Maybe on the way back?” He suggested, because he knew Bill would go to sleep in the passenger seat. 

“Ohh you’re right... well how about we play some music then?” He gasped. “Get in the mood, the vibe, right Alice?”

She laughed a little stiffly. “We don’t have to.” She clicked the button on her headphones to either turn up the music she was already listening to or pause it. 

“Aw come on Al-pal!” 

Deb was chuckling weirdly now too, and when Paul accidentally made split second eye contact with her they both started doing it. 

Paul hoped they would not play any music. 

“Look, I’ve got that CD we picked up from the starlight, remember? The whole Mamma Mia sing along track.”

“Oh no.”

Alice’s smile faded into sort of just having her lips pursed shut, Paul was about to speak up too. 

“I don’t think-“

“Let’s get this show on the road huh?” Bill said, as they were already fifteen minutes into the show. He always did a sort of dance when he was happy, a little shake of his shoulders. Paul couldn’t ruin that for him, no matter how much Mamma Mia was about to obliterate any of the energy he had stocked up for the day.

Paul didn’t want to ruin his fun, he guessed, but as the opening notes of ‘Honey Honey’ began to blast he figured this wasn’t going to be quite the peaceful trip he was hoping for. If he somehow hadn’t already realised that.  
———————————————————

“And he really loves his new wet food we’ve been giving to him, he almost won’t take his dry food anymore! He’s a silly cat but he can be very stubborn at times!” Ted could count on his fingers the amount of breaths Charlotte had taken since the ride started. “And so I was trying to feed him before I left but he just kept meowing!”

“Oh that’s funny, Char,” he nodded along as the woman in the passenger seat rambled on about what her cat had been up to this morning. “Sounds like he was causing a bit of trouble there,” he said. That was his usual answer since he only ever half listened to her stories.

“Oh yes well, I love him dearly but he pushes all of my things off the table! Last night he pushed off my planner and all my papers were out of order!”

“Tricky,” he tilted his head to her to show he was listening even though his eyes were on the road. 

“Oh yes! He’s got all sorts of tricks up his sleeves,” she giggled. “I spent all evening sorting them back up.”

Ted nodded again. “Yeah, he sounds like the trickiest one. You’ve got lots of tricky cats.” He didn’t know what she was on about any more though. He glanced down at the time, noting they were about half way there now, and he hadn’t gotten much of a word in. 

“Oh, no!” She gasped, excited and leaning forward in her chair as a memory surfaced. “Two weeks ago I opened the back door to do some laundry but I turned around and I was so sure I closed it but the door was open! It’s because one of them have figured out you can grab the handle if you jump down from the laundry machine!”

“Hah,” he snorted at the idea, not that he was very interested in cats. “Clever of them.”

“Yes! But to try and push a coffee cup off the table this morning was just naughty!” She sighed, albeit fondly. “The little man! I caught him just in time, Sam would not be happy if that was his coffee,” she chuckled.

“What?” Ted scoffed, immediately defensive. “He’s a cat. What’s he gonna do, arrest him?” 

“Oh, Ted. You don’t have to- it’s not a big deal, I was just telling a joke!” She exclaimed, her face paling. “You don’t have to say that.”

“Yeah well so was I, huh? Now what?”

“Ted,” she groaned, dipping her head down in an attempt to end the argument. 

Ted was not letting it go that easily though. “I know it was just a joke but it could happen and you know it! He would’ve been pissed at you and the cat if that had happened, and for what? He has a shitty temper, and you need to leave him,” he jabbed his hand at the dashboard violently to punctuate his points, talking right over her now. He was happy to put up with cats but not talk about Sam. 

“Ted! I barely mentioned him! Why do you have to make a big deal out of it? He lives in my house how can I not talk about him!?” She slapped her hands down in her lap before Ted could say anything.

“I know you don’t like to have this talk but I hate it when you bring him up, Char!” His eyes flickered to the door locks, reminding himself that Charlotte couldn’t go anywhere right now, she was trapped in the car with him, she had to listen. “Sam does not have the right to be as angry as he gets,” he jabbed his finger to the steering wheel. 

“Yes but you yelling at me can’t change his actions! Did you want me to ring up and divorce him right now?” She snapped, it was out of character for her, but Ted wasn’t going to stop there. 

“Look, you deserve better,” one of his hands passed over the car’s console to lightly rest on her thigh.

“Ted,” Charlotte hesitated at the sound of the doors locking with a click. “I’ve told you, it’s none of your business!” She shooed his hand back and he clutched it to his chest with a grumbling sigh. “That’s very inappropriate!” She spat, trying very hard to distance herself from him in the few feet of space she had to shift around in. She even eyed the handle one or twice.

“Well you can’t stay with me and then go home to him!” He huffed passive aggressively, not like Sam ever was home anyways. “He’s off messing with some other chick, Char. You can leave him, ya know!”

“Ted!” She warned again. “Stop saying that! I’ve already told you we aren’t together!”

“I know a lawyer, a divorce would probably be great news for both of you!” 

She slapped his gesticulating hand out of the air. “Ted! I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Her tone was violent and tense at first, but she tapered off and became meek again, shifting her knees towards the car door and turning out the window. “We were talking about my cats,” she said on a final note, huffing into the palm pressed up against her cheek.

Ted grimaced, allowing driving to take up all of his attention and slapping the steering wheel in a show of rage at the car that was driving too slowly in front of him. He wanted to get out of the car, now. 

Charlotte attempted to share a sympathetic look at him, but backed out of it once she saw his scowl. “Let’s talk about anything else but that, okay?”

“Jeez,” he rolled his eyes, but Charlotte did not try to repair the conversation, and Ted was left in silence. He let it simmer for a moment longer before he broke the silence by clearing his throat. “So what were you saying about your cat?” He tried since she wasn’t helping much.

“Nothing, Ted. It’s not important,” she shook her head.

“Ugh! Well! You’re in my car okay so can you at least make an effort to talk with me?”

“You were the one who offered to drive me! I was going to go with Bill until you asked!” She retorted, almost in tears at this point.

“Wow, okay, forget I asked,” he scoffed, focusing on the road.

This was a dumb, stupid road trip. 

———————————————————

“Look at us, we are making perfect time!” Melissa was really quite enjoying the trip. She had been excited to share the long journey with someone who would chat with her rather than space out or put in music. 

Mr Davidson was enjoying it too, not having to drive and getting a chance to go over his notes one more time before the conference. “We have twenty minutes left,” he added on with a hearty chuckle. “Thank you for driving, oh it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a road trip! Perhaps the family will go on one soon!” He exclaimed with a hint of excitement.

“Aww, that sounds lovely!” She chirped, tapping her free foot. “Where will you head?” 

“Oh we’ll decide on that yet!” He shrugged. “Perhaps somewhere in Clivesdale for the weekend.”

“Ahh that sounds very cool,” she leant in towards the steering wheel. “You could find a little resort or something and take a fun little break! I’ll handle the office while you’re gone,” she joked.

“Haha I don’t know about that,” he joked back, she hoped. 

“Oh well, I do hope you all enjoy it,” she dropped her joking tone because she was a little lost on whether or not it landed.  
“I wish I had someone to go on road trips with,” she laughed to herself, casting a quick glance his way to ensure she wasn’t being unprofessional but accidentally making eye contact. “A girlfriend! I mean. I wasn’t fishing, hahah.” 

“Oh, you scared me for a second!” He managed to stammer through a laugh. “Yes, that’s great!” He gave her one, firm pat on the shoulder. “Go and get one!”

“Oh trust me, sir, I’ve been looking,” she slapped a hand to the steering wheel. “I don’t know where they all are!” She laughed through her speech to match his tone. “You can’t just go pick them up off the street! That’s not what I’m looking for!”

“Oh well,” he didn’t know how to reply to that than with a bit of a forced chuckle with an abrupt end. “Keep up the effort! I- sorry, you go first,” he shook his head as he spoke over her.

“Oh my god. Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ but he was giving her the go on as since she was getting the vibe she was getting off topic she didn’t want to waste his time. “I literally- look, I just want to kiss a girl and then I’ll be happy.” 

“Oh well,” he hesitated. “That’s lovely of course but there’s more to a relationship than kissing, right?” He rubbed his neck and the car quickly plunged into silence. 

“Oh yeah well- of course I mean!” She panicked for a second, just a little lost on what she should say next. “I just meant like, I wanna hold hands with a girl or something!” She rephrased it, tapping her foot a little faster. “I mean like that’s it! I don’t mean it in a weird way! She can kick me after that if she wants I just like-“ she didn’t know if she was digging herself in or out of this hole, because she did not know what hole she was in.

“I know what you mean, but there’s more than just that! It’s not very good that you don’t care if she kicks you, that doesn’t sound very healthy,” he tripped over his speech, sort of turned in his chair to face her but not able to hold that pose very comfortably. 

Melissa genuinely had no idea if she was being chided or not right now, but she did sort of want to cry over the fact she was being spoken to in a way that wasn’t entirely positive. “No, I wouldn’t date someone who would kick me,” she tried to explain. “I just mean, uh,” it was worse because this was her boss and not just a friend she was riding with. “I just want to be in love.”

“Yes and you should treat her right and she should treat you right!” He elaborated on a point Melissa still didn’t understand. “Yeah! That’s all!”

“I would! She will!” She exclaimed, frantically shifting her eyes between him and the road, trying not to swerve. “We would!”

“Oh well I worry about that, you know, sometimes I think people settle. They just settle and both of them deserve better, I hope whoever you meet you treat them as more than just a hand to hold, you know?”

“Oh my-“ she focused on the road for three seconds just so she didn’t look like a bad driver. “Dad- Mr Davidson!” Shit. This could honestly not get worse for her. “I wouldn’t do that I don’t objectify women!” 

“Just because you aren’t straight doesn’t mean every relationship is going to be perfect,” he fortunately brushed over the middle part which was good because Melissa was and will be going to cry the second she steps out of this car. “You know what I mean?” He was tapping his fingers together, an awkward, permanent chuckle dripping from his words.

“I don’t know which one of us is in trouble, sir,” she gave an airy laugh to kill the silence, dipping her head slightly as she drove. The smile he had been wearing the while time was replaced with a much more cautious look. “I don’t know what’s going on. Look, I don’t know why I brought up the topic maybe I should just drop it, let’s talk about your cards again!”

For about ten seconds there there was nothing but but very forced and quiet laughter and unbroken eye contact, although it felt like an hour.

This last twenty minutes was really intent on stretching itself out, a little desperate for attention it seemed as the next set of traffic lights turned red yet again. 

“I’m not even in that big of a rush to get into a relationship, honestly, like,” she shook her head, backtracking. Why was she backtracking? She could just drop it! “It’s not a big deal to me and I know it is to some people but it’s really not a necessary for me!” 

“Didn’t seem like that ten seconds ago,” maybe that was a joke. Melissa had lost track of where the tone was right now. “Hey, are you okay?”

Melissa smacked her other hand to her eye, it was already watery. “Oh my god, sorry, yes sir, I’m fine I-“ her throat closed. Not because anything was any worse, she just hated bringing attention to it.

“Well, we’re almost there,” Mr Davidson turned back to his own seat, clasping his hands awkwardly in his lap, realising perhaps that whatever tone had been set was not understood by either of them and no longer worth salvaging. 

“I am so sorry sir, sometimes I run my mouth, huh?” She adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. “Haha,” she forced a very stiff laugh to brush it all off, driving just a little bit too quickly when the lights changed again. “You and Carol must get along really well,” she tried to loop back on the conversation. “You seem like an expert.”

“No no you’re alright! It’s- I didn’t get- It’s just about mutual love and respect,” he laid out his palms as he spoke. “You don’t have to accept bad attention you know, not all attention is good attention, do you know?” 

“Ahhh!” She raised her voice, clicking her tongue. “Will you look at that we’re here, oh my god great! With five minutes to spare let’s go!” She had almost thrown herself from the car getting out, remembering at the last second to grab her things out of the back seat before locking up.

Was she in trouble? She honestly couldn’t tell, but Mr Davidson probably didn’t get it either.

———————————————————

“Paul? Paul,” the second he had trudged out of that meeting someone latched onto his arm and he was pulled back a step out of the stream of exiting staff members. 

“Melissa? Is everything okay?” He brushed her off his arm so he could recollect himself with a shake of his head, but she reattached herself right away. 

“Can you please carpool home with me?” 

“Huh? Why did something happen with Mr Davidson?” Not that he was opposed to taking the car ride home that wouldn’t be full of karaoke tracks. 

“No, no, he’s totally fine, I just need the silence to reinvent my personality on the way home, and I can’t do it if Mr Davison is right there!” Melissa gestured over her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll cry. Who knows.”

“Ohh, bad car ride?” He frowned.

She sucked in a breath of air through her teeth, lowering her voice down to a whisper. “Bro, I genuinely don’t even know what that man is telling me sometimes.” Her eyes were wide with perhaps fear or confusion. “I don’t know if I’m in trouble or not, he was like ‘don’t objectify women’ and then he was like ‘find someone who loves you’ and I could not read the tone! And then we just sat there and laughed and I don’t know what about and I don’t wanna go back in that car alone!” 

“That sounds scary,” he gulped, finding it impossible to imagine how getting that talk from his boss would feel. “Hey, maybe we’ll work something out with Bill, I was supposed to drive his car home but he played The Last Five Years all the way here and I don’t know if I can risk that on the way back!” He grabbed her shoulder just so she could feel his shock. 

They both shared a nod and Melissa gave a small salute to ensure she could carry out their plan before hurrying off to the car park in search of their driving partners. “Maybe Bill and Mr Davidson can drive together, they like to hang out right?” She suggested as they scurried through the crowd.

“That’s good! We’ll just swap we can just- hey, Ted? Have you seen Bill around?” He shouldn’t have raised his voice that loud or been running, but quite frankly he was a little desperate to get a safe ride home because he had no qualms personally about telling Melissa to shut up if she were to whip out a musical soundtrack. Bill just did not ever deserve to be yelled at. 

“Uh, what for?” Ted shielded his eyes from the late afternoon sun, Charlotte was standing at the car silently behind him. 

“Uh, I was gonna ride back in Melissa’s car so I just wanted to tell Bill so we could leave.”

“Oh, did Bill do something?” Ted raised a brow.

“No, no!” Paul shook his head. “He’s fine! I just need some quiet after all that, I don’t think I can sit through any more sing alongs,” he rubbed his arm, he didn’t want to hurt Bill’s feelings by running off so he was hoping perhaps they could just exchange partners like Melissa had said.

Charlotte glanced over. “Oh well I don’t mind riding home with Bill if he needs the company,” she announced. 

Ted turned around to shoot her a shocked look, his brows furrowed in surprise. “Huh? I was driving you home.”

“Oh Charlotte? Did you need a ride?” Bill and Mr Davidson were both pacing down the sidewalk from the front doors, basking in the sunlight. 

Paul whipped around to face them. 

“Well I think Paul is heading back with Melissa,” Charlotte pushed past Ted to meet Bill halfway. “Would it be alright if I come with you?” 

Paul signalled to Melissa with a twitch of his head in the direction of her car and the two of them booked it the second they could, leaving Ted standing there by his car alone. 

“Oh of course, Charlotte! Come on, my car’s up this way. We’ll see you two back at work!” Bill gave a wave and Charlotte let out a relieved sigh, sticking close to Bill’s side lest he leave her behind. 

“Oh, well I think my ride just left without me,” Mr Davidson kept his hands in his pockets. He turned to Ted expectantly. “That’s good yes it’s fun to switch things up for a bit!” He sounded just as strained as Melissa had. 

“Oh yeah, uh,” he pursed his lips shut. “Looks like my ridee just dipped too.” Although he didn’t know what he could’ve possibly done to offend Charlotte, because he was, after all, right. Charlotte was just overreacting. 

“Well, guess that just leaves you and me then huh, Ted?” He patted his side twice in the universal dad gesture for ‘let’s get this show on the road,’ and Ted held in a groan as he got into his front seat.

“Nice to switch things up a little huh pal?” He ran a finger along Ted’s dashboard.

“Why’d Melissa kick you out?” He grunted.

“Oh no she didn’t!” He announced. “We’re just switching things up,” Mr Davidson assured him, elbowing him across the console. “Half way through she looked like she was about to cry and I didn’t know what to say to make her not cry,” he added in a much quieter and rushed confession. It seemed he agreed with the switch too.

Ted however, did not. He wanted his original carpool partner back, not his boss.

He would say it was karma or divine retribution but what had he done to deserve that? It was Charlotte who had brought up Sam, so. He was pretty innocent. Yeah. 

“Ugh.” None of his business. “Yeah, wonder why,” he huffed, starting up his car. He should’ve moved faster.

“She seemed a bit overwhelmed! It was fine! We’re fine!” He added on a final note. “Why’d Charlotte dip on you?” He turned it back around.

“Uh! No reason, she just wanted to switch things up and go with Bill since your designated driver stole Paul and left a vacancy in his car and Charlotte felt bad about it!” 

Mr Davidson nodded and nodded and nodded. “Charlotte, yes, she’s very sweet like that I’d expect nothing less! But no, right now it’s Ted time, I believe! So Ted! Catch me up! What have I missed since we last had some time together?” 

“Oh my god,” he didn’t know when he had last hung out with his boss and for good reason, he actively avoided him. He was just a tad too over enthusiastic and pleased about his job, and Ted just wanted to smack his own head into the dashboard and sleep for a couple of hours after the days events. 

“Why don’t you start, buddy?” He suggested instead, turning on the radio to tune him out as much as he could.

“Oh, I love this song! You know we almost played this song at our wedding, how does it go?” He hummed the tune out of time. “Yeah, something like-“

Ted could see Melissa and Bill’s cars hurrying out of the car park, and god he wished that stupid swapping idea had never come up. 

Now this, was going to be a long drive back.

**Author's Note:**

> Ted simply doesn’t appreciate mr Davidson and that’s a him problem.


End file.
